Fresh Loaf

Matthew Cardinale, editor of Atlanta Progressive News, took issue with a blog post I wrote that criticized articles on his website concerning candidates in the mayor’s race. I admit I was somewhat harsh, but I feel my points were valid. Still, in the spirit of journalistic goodwill, we’re giving Cardinale the opportunity to respond. (For the record, we’ve trimmed his letter for the sake of space and relevance — and I added my own annotations.) Enjoy:

In a post entitled, “Where’s Mary, indeed?,” writer Scott Henry makes a number of false, unsubstantiated, defamatory, unprofessional and vicious statements regarding me and my publication, the Atlanta Progressive News.

The relevant text is as follows:

“The latest negative tidbit to surface is a weird piece of innuendo proffered by the Atlanta Progressive News, which is something of a far-left blog masquerading as a media outlet. Acting as an apparent proxy for the Norwood campaign, APN has cluttered e-mail inboxes with a piece insinuating that (Kasim) Reed, in his capacity as an attorney, once battled the NAACP on behalf of Cracker Barrel restaurants.

The ‘article,’ like much of APN’s output — including several attack pieces previously written about Lisa Borders — falls so far short of basic journalistic standards that it scarcely bears notice. Still, another local blogger who also works as an attorney was so offended by the lousy legal analysis she found in the APN piece that she felt compelled to post a point-by-point rebuttal.”

Let me go through and respond to his statements individually.

1. First of all, APN’s article was not innuendo, it was factual. If anything, it’s Henry’s post (and previous posts he’s written on other topics) that are characterized by innuendo. It is a fact that Reed, in his capacity as an attorney, once battled the NAACP on behalf of Cracker Barrel restaurants.

According to the federal database, PACER, Reed absolutely was an attorney, did represent Cracker Barrel, and on the other side was the NAACP, which both filed amicus briefs on behalf of a class of workers and helped organize this and a series of legal cases pursued against Cracker Barrel at the same time.

Now, some could argue that Cracker Barrel is entitled to a legal defense, or that Reed was just doing his job, etc., but that does not change the fact that he “in his capacity as an attorney, once battled the NAACP on behalf of Cracker Barrel.” Henry’s failure to back up his statement also means that his comment is the one that is innuendo, but it is also false.

[From Scott: I described the article as “innuendo” because, in referencing a 1999 case in which Reed was one of many attorneys working on behalf of Cracker Barrel, Cardinale points out that the restaurant chain “historically would neither serve Black customers nor employ homosexuals.” But the case in question had nothing to do with alleged civil rights violations; it was a worker’s comp case dealing with employee overtime.]

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Scheduled to go on the auction block Dec. 1

Last time it was the water bill. This time it’s the mortgage.

The city’s largest homeless shelter is again in danger of being ousted from its longtime home just in time for the holidays.

The Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless faces foreclosure actions brought by two separate lenders against the enormous old building it occupies at the corner of Peachtree and Pine streets. Barring some intervention, the former automotive parts warehouse is scheduled to be auctioned off on the courthouse steps Dec. 1.

The two delinquent mortgage loans are held by private charities that specialize in low-income housing: the Mercy Loan Fund, the lending arm of Denver-based Mercy Housing; and the Institute for Community Economics, which is affiliated with the National Housing Trust of Washington, D.C.

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Anita Beatty of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless alleges that the city conspired to shut down her Midtown facility.

A lawsuit filed by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless that accuses the city of Atlanta of using “improper, illegal and unethical means” in an attempt to shut down the organization’s controversial Peachtree-Pine shelter will get its day in Fulton County Superior Court on Sept. 21.

The 23-page filing alleges that the city has used a multi-pronged approach since 2007 to try and shut down the shelter — the largest of its kind in Atlanta, and, according to neighbors and city officials, a magnet for crime in a gentrifying corridor.

City Hall officials have damaged the organization’s reputation and ability to compete for funding, the task force’s lawyers claim, by delaying certification needed to apply for grants, making defamatory remarks to private donors, and cutting off water service to the shelter for unpaid bills. The lawsuit also accuses officials with Central Atlanta Progress, a civic booster group, of instigating the media to report negatively on the shelter.

The lawsuit asks the judge to stop the city from collecting on the shelter’s water bill debts, defaming the task force, and refusing to issue the certification it needs to seek funding. (Here’s a link to a PDF of the task force’s lawsuit.)

A.J. Robinson of Central Atlanta Progress strongly denies any conspiracy between the downtown organization and City Hall to shut down the task force. In an interview with CL, Robinson claimed that other local organizations were more effective than the task force when it comes to helping people break the cycle of homelessness.

“It’s not about the homeless population,” Robinson said of the dispute. “It’s about a very poorly managed and poorly operated operation. I wish we could influence the media to shine a light on this organization and how the people in there are not being served. There are better facilities around the community that can serve that purpose.”

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Number of homeless families relocated from New York through the city’s one-way airline ticket program, since 2007: 550

Amount it costs the city of New York to house a homeless family for a year: $36,000

Amount the city spent to buy plane tickets for the 550 families: $1,000,000

Number of plane tickets the city purchased to relocate a family to Paris: 5

Number of states where families have chosen to relocate: 24

Number of families that relocated to Georgia: 38

Number of states that had more families relocate there than Georgia did: 2

Number of homeless men housed at Atlanta’s Peachtree-Pine shelter: 350

Estimated cost to purchase 350 one-way tickets to New York: $29,750

Sources: New York Times, Sidestep.com

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The Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless has met a court-ordered deadline for making a $15,000 payment to its wildly delinquent water bill — kind of.

A Fulton County judge last Tuesday ordered the city to reinstate water service to the huge Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter, on the condition that the Task Force pay its April and May bills by June 30.

According to Department of Watershed Management spokeswoman Janet Ward, the group dropped by on Friday with a check for $1,000. Then, yesterday, they sent over another check for $13,809.82, which left them short. Finally, today, they brought a third check for the final $190.18.

So, could the city have shut off the water again last night, when the Task Force still owed a couple hundred bucks?

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1. Congress debates, votes on cap-and-trade energy bill (Good news: The House passed the monumental energy-conversation bill. Bad news: Georgia Congressman Paul Broun has embarrassed the entire state.)

2. Clermont foreclosure is tip of the iceberg (The plot thickens.)

3. Michael Jackson tributes in Atlanta (Atlanta celebrates the King of Pop. Twitter crashes. And Perez Hilton weeps.)

4. Coolest contest ever: Redesign the Clermont Hotel (The contest would have been a lot cooler if the seedy hotel wasn’t in danger of foreclosure. See No. 2.)

5. Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter told to vacate building (In the end, surprisingly, the homeless prevailed.)

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UPDATE: The AJC reports that a judge has ordered the city to restore the shelter’s water service on the condition that the Task Force make a $15,000 payment by June 30.

Just after noon today, Anita Beaty, executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless was involved in a drive-by: Her pro-bono attorney pulled up to the curb outside the giant Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter; Beaty came out of the building and signed some legal documents, which were then stamped by a notary on the hood of the car; and the attorney then raced off to Fulton Superior Court to try to get a judge to restore water service to the shelter.

“Hopefully, we’ll get relief from the court,” Beaty said after the car pulled away. She said she expected to have a court hearing later in the day.

Beaty is in a race against time. The shelter stayed open last night, after the city had shut off its water because of unpaid bills, but had been ordered by Fulton County health officials to vacate the building by noon today if water service hadn’t been restored.

Although the Task Force had missed the noon deadline, Beaty said she was talking with county officials about getting an extension. In the meantime, well-wishers continue to drop off cases of bottled water.

“While the county strictly enforcing the law, they’re working with us to solve this problem,” Beaty said. “They’ve been very helpful.”

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Anita Beaty

UPDATE: Shelter stays open for now.

The water has been turned off again at the city’s largest homeless shelter and this time health officials have given the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless 24 hours to clear out of the building.

Back in December, the city shut off water service to the 100,000-square-foot shelter at the corner of Peachtree and Pine streets because the Task Force had more than $160,000 in unpaid water bills. A judge quickly granted a temporary restraining order to have the water switched back on, but gave the city the power to cut service again if the Task Force failed to keep up with a fairly strict payment schedule.

That’s where we are now. Anita Beaty, executive director of the Task Force, admits the group hadn’t paid its bill.

“We didn’t make the payments the last two months because we didn’t have the money,” she says.

Shortly after the water went off, investigators with the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness showed up at the shelter and served legal notice that unless water service is restored within 24 hours, the building must be vacated.

“If they don’t vacate, the case will be turned over to law enforcement,” says April Majors, a public information officer with the county health department, who says she doesn’t believe it will come to that. “The management (of the shelter) is being very cooperative.”

Also, she says, if the Task Force doesn’t comply with the county order, it would be required to appear before the county’s environmental court.

The Task Force has until noon Tuesday to clear out of the Peachtree-Pine shelter, Majors says, unless it can restore water service — meaning drinkable water and working toilets.

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The AJC reports the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless has quietly put its Peachtree Street headquarters up for sale.

The asking price for the 96,000-square-foot building is $10.5 million, Kansas said.

“This is to weigh the options and see what can really happen,” Kansas said. “We’ve gotten a significant amount of interest from people local and out of state, but no formal offer yet.”

…

Kansas said that while he thinks the Task Force would “love to stay in the building, the fact of the matter is that the Task Force only uses about 30 percent of that entire building.

“It’s very under-utilized, and you’ve got a premium location and, frankly, a use that’s not desired on Peachtree,” [Gene Kansas, the developer handling the potential sale] said.

In 1997, Coke heiress Ednabelle Wardlaw purchased the former United Motors Service building for $1.3 million and donated it to the center. In a Dec. 2008 article about the shelter’s woes, executive director Anita Beaty told CL she was looking forward to an estimated $13 million renovation of the building.

If you’re in the market for prime property on the city’s most famous thoroughfare, submit your offer before the March 16 deadline.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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The Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless is in dire financial straits, but it did manage to make an $8,000 payment on its delinquent water bill, the AJC reports today. Yesterday, the paper had a story detailing some of the other debts the homeless shelter is carrying, including more than $4 million in loans from private lenders.

Last Friday, we posted my article on the Task Force and its director, Anita Beaty, to this website.

Homeless task force Director Anita Beaty

It will also be the cover story of tomorrow’s print edition. But it’s gotten a fair amount of lengthy commentary that I’d like to share. Here’s Tina’s take:

I would like to challenge Creative Loafing to offer BOTH sides of this situation. This article was myopic in its scope, only presenting the views of those opposing the Task Force.

To that I would say that when I called local social-service veterans like the Atlanta Community Food Bank’s Bill Bolling, I had no idea what they would say about the Task Force. The impression I had after making these calls — including some to people not quoted — was that Beaty’s agency has alienated nearly all its peers. I didn’t come across any homeless service providers who believe the Task Force is doing a great job, so I think the views expressed in the story are representative of an unfortunate situation.

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The woman approaching is stooped and sunken-eyed, with a weather-ravaged face that hints she might be much younger than she looks. She carries a frayed backpack and when she speaks, it’s in the beaten-down manner of someone accustomed to asking favors.

The Peachtree-Pine shelter houses hundreds of homeless men.

“Thank you, Miss Anita,” she says, as she follows her subject along the sidewalk and through the side door of the Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter. “You’re always good to me, even when I stray.”

Anita Beaty assures the woman she’ll be taken care of and ushers her into a small lobby where other street people occupy chairs along the walls or gaze out windows.

“We’re the first place people can come so they don’t die on the street,” explains Beaty as she sits down for an interview a few minutes later.

As executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Beaty has run the city’s largest shelter on the corner of Peachtree and Pine streets for more than a decade. White-haired and grandmotherly, her appearance belies her reputation as a relentless advocate for the homeless, and in conversation, she comes across as so soft-spoken and unhurried that you’d never guess this is someone whose world is unraveling.

Earlier this month, the city turned off the water at Peachtree-Pine, citing unpaid bills totaling more than $160,000. Beaty quickly persuaded a judge to issue a temporary injunction to restore service, but her agency must comply with a daunting payment schedule or the water goes back off.

While water is the most immediate of the problems facing the Task Force, it’s far from the only one. It may not even be the biggest.
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Estimated number of people who were homelessness in Fulton and DeKalb counties for at least part of 2007: 22,000

Number of homeless children enrolled in metro Atlanta schools: 17,267

Percentage of Atlantans interviewed in 2007 who reported job loss or unemployment as their reason for homelessness: 42

Percentage of unemployed Atlantans as of October 2007: 4.4

Percentage as of October 2008: 6.8

Average monthly rent, in dollars, for a two-bedroom apartment in Atlanta: 834

Current monthly welfare benefits, in dollars, for a woman and two children: 282

Number of donation meters installed in downtown Atlanta to discourage the homeless from panhandling: 5

Number of new meters to be installed in other Atlanta locations: 11

Dollars, per month, that Baltimore collects from 10 meters in its main tourism district: 100

Sources: Hands On Atlanta, Tri-Jurisdictional Homeless Census and Survey 2007, United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Georgia Department of Labor, ajc.com

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Anita Beaty is right about one thing: City officials would love to shut down her enormous shelter at the corner of Peachtree and Pine streets.

Yesterday morning, the city cut off the water service to the former warehouse building occupied by Beaty’s Task Force for the Homeless. By evening, however, a judge had ordered the water turned back on. But unless Beaty is able to pay off a $160,000 water bill, the shelter may soon be forced to close down for good.

Anita Beaty

“It’s very serious right now,” says former Atlanta Councilwoman Myrtle Davis, who serves on the Task Force’s board of directors. “This is part of a concerted effort by the city to shut us down.”

Arguably so, but that doesn’t change the apparent fact that the Task Force owes $160,000 in outstanding water bills. Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford ordered the shelter to come up with $6,000 by Friday and another $3,000 or so by next Wednesday, and to develop a reasonable plan for paying off the rest of the bill.

“If they miss either payment, the water goes back off,” says Debi Starnes, another former councilwoman who now serves as Mayor Franklin’s Homeless Czarina.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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From the AJC:

Atlanta turned off the water to one of the city’s largest homeless shelters, the Task Force for the Homeless at Peachtree and Pine streets, on Tuesday for nonpayment.

The Task Force for the Homeless describes the action as another tactic to close the shelter which housed 700 people on Monday night.

[...]

The city realized in September it had not billed the Task Force for the Homeless for sewer use since 2002 and it demanded a $16,000 payment to cover service for 12 months, Beaty and Ward said.

Maybe the mayor can take some of the money from her homeless meters and apply it to the shelter’s bill.

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The Whole Foods that canceled a fundraiser for the homeless because of pressure from a nearby neighborhood association says it’s keeping its word.

“Whole Foods Market is honoring its commitment by donating $3,500 to the Earn-a-Bike program, and honoring the commitment to our team members, who feel very strongly about continuing with a donation,” writes Lesley Sifford, marketing team leader at the Whole Foods location on Ponce de Leon Avenue.

Rachael Spiewak of the Sopo Bicycle Cooperative, the nonprofit that helped organize the fundraiser, chimes in in a previous post’s comments section.

On Friday, September 12, Ponce Whole Foods contacted Taskforce and Sopo
to tell us that they are honoring their original commitment to dedicate
last Wednesday’s 5% Day to Taskforce for the Homeless. They are making
a fantastic contribution directly to the shelter, which will be spent
on opening and operating the bicycle shop where the Earn-A-Bike program
will take place. We look forward to continuing to partner with
Taskforce and other agencies who want to pursue access to cycling and
bicycle repair for all!

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The Sopo Bicycle Cooperative, a local nonprofit that helps people find and fix velocipedes, is asking its members to considerately urge Whole Foods to reinstate the fundraiser it canceled because of pressure from a Midtown neighborhood group.

According to a message posted on MySpace by Rachael Spiewak, Sopo’s executive director, the fundraiser to benefit the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless was organized by a cooperative intern from Paideia High School and an Americorps volunteer at the task force.

We all came together to create an on-site bicycle repair shop that provides access to an environmentally responsible form of transportation as well as opportunities to learn marketable skills. Skill building and reliable transportation are necessary for everyday life, and will help our friends at Taskforce access jobs and independent living.

Get Sopo’s take on the matter — as well as who to call at Whole Foods if you want them to know how you feel — after the jump.

(Special thanks to Christa at PecanneLog for the tip and message)

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What a difference a few hours makes.

The Midtown Ponce Security Alliance has called off its boycott of Whole Foods, according to another e-mail the neighborhood group sent to members. The grocery store agreed to cancel the fundraiser that sparked the boycott. (Five percent of today’s sales would have benefited the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless.)

From the e-mail:

MIDTOWN PONCE SECURITY ALLIANCE – Whole Foods calls off fundraiser

——————————————————————————–

We have confirmed that Whole Foods has suspended its plans to raise funds for the Metro Task Force for the “Homeless,” so we have called off the boycott. Due to overwhelming response from the community, they are not going ahead with the plan. It has become clear to Whole Foods that Peachtree Pine, operated by the Metro Task Force for the “Homeless,” generates substantial opposition from the surrounding community because of all the crime radiating from that building at Peachtree & Pine.

On the one hand we should not hold Whole Foods responsible because the Task Force presentation said the money would be used to buy bicycles for homeless people to get to and from work. The Task Force is slick, and can be stealthy in their public relations practices. It probably sounded like a great idea, but Whole Foods didn’t know what a nuisance and dangerous proposition that Peachtree/Pine presents to the surrounding community.

On the other hand, we had to act fast because we only became aware of this plan at 9am this morning – an hour after its launch. After verification and a flurry of phone calls, we made the decision to call for a short-notice community response. Had we known about this ahead of time, we would have attempted to derail the plan in the background before sounding an alarm to the community.

It so happens that we have been evaluating neighborhood-friendlier alternatives to address the homeless issue in Atlanta, but we are still working on this and will share our findings at a later date.

In the meantime, we wish thank those of you who responded by calling Whole Foods, and especially to Whole Foods for listening to their stakeholders. Therefore, we have called off the boycott of Whole Foods.

- Your Neighbors at the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance

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(UPDATE) The fundraiser has been canceled because of neighborhood response and the boycott has been lifted. See this post for details.

The Midtown Ponce Security Alliance, a vigilant homeowners group whose stance on crime teeters between neighborhood watch and Batman, has called for a boycott of Whole Foods today because the high-end grocery store is donating a share of today’s sales to the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless. (Whole Foods has a nearby location across the street from City Hall East.)

In an e-mail sent to members today and forwarded along to CL, the alliance says “In all likelihood, Whole Foods will furnish several thousand dollars to this “task force” so that crime and disorder in our community can continue.”

The group says nearby Peachtree Pine homeless shelter, which last year lost state and federal funding and would benefit from the donations, does not help the city’s  homeless population and merely allows “crime and disorder” to flourish in the gentrifying area. The e-mail points to two specific events — the recent killing of a Florida resident at a Midtown gas station and a resident who was assaulted with a brick.

Quite strange when you think of all the other good Whole Foods accomplishes, as well as the larger issue of what can be done to help break the cycle in which many homeless people find themselves.

The full e-mail to alliance members is pasted after the jump.

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